Reading Empedocles hard by the Saxon church of St Mary the Virgin in Strethall, Essex

One of my favourite places to visit by bicycle in order to lay back quietly and alone upon the grass, eat a sandwich, drink a flask of tea and read is the Saxon church of St Mary the Virgin in Strethall, Essex. It's a quite perfect piece of England in it's own way and I never tire of visiting. On this occasion I took Empedocles with me to read and spent a hour musing upon his philosophy—so very different from that which inspired the building of the church by which I sat. However, I have a feeling one of my great seventeenth-century theological heroes, the so-called Ranter, Jacob Bauthumley (1613-1692) wouldn't have been at all discombobulated by Empedocles' thought. (See this paper for a fine exposition of Bauthumley's views.)

Be that as it may, for your enjoyment below is the church's listing by the RCHM and also some photos of the church taken today.

Flint rubble building with a very small nave of Saxon origin (early C11). It was re-roofed in the C15 when the west tower was built and most of the chancel. The church was restored in the C19 when the north vestry and south porch were added. The west tower is unbuttressed, with a plain parapetand stone bands. The nave which measures 26 ft x 15 ft has Saxon long and short work at the west angle. The C11 chancel arch has a roughly moulded label and decorated imposts. The south doorway is also of the C11 but altered in the C15. There is a small original window above the tower arch. The nave contains about 12 small pews of which 2 at the west end are C15. In the chancel north wall there is a recessed altar tomb with canopy to John Gardyner, Lord of the Manor 1508 and 2 palimpsest brasses of the C15 and C16. One to a priest. The font is of the late C12. Graded for its architectural and historical value.

Unitarian minister in Cambridge (UK) with sympathies towards Christian atheism and religious naturalism. Communalist, jazz bass player, photographer, cyclist and walker.
Over the years I've tried various descriptions of "where I'm at" but, although they have been OK as far as they go, they've not fitted as well as they might. These days I find the following words of the philosopher, Paul Wienpahl, fit the bill better than anything else:

"As I see it, the point is not to identify reality with anything except itself. (Tautologies are, after all, true.) If you wish to persist by asking what reality is; that is, what is really, the answer is that it is what you experience it to be. Reality is as you see, hear, feel, taste and smell it, and as you live it. And it is a multifarious thing. To see this is to be a man without a position. To get out of the mind and into the world, to get beyond language and to the things is to cease to be an idealist or a pragmatist, or an existentialist, or a Christian. I am a man without a position. I do not have the philosophic position that there are no positions or theories or standpoints. (There obviously are.) I am not a sceptic or an agnostic or an atheist. I am simply a man without a position, and this should open the door to detachment"Paul Wienpahl in An Unorthodox Lecture (1956)

Unitarian minister in Cambridge (UK) with sympathies towards Christian atheism and religious naturalism. Communalist, jazz bass player, photographer, cyclist and walker.
Over the years I've tried various descriptions of "where I'm at" but, although they have been OK as far as they go, they've not fitted as well as they might. These days I find the following words of the philosopher, Paul Wienpahl, fit the bill better than anything else:

"As I see it, the point is not to identify reality with anything except itself. (Tautologies are, after all, true.) If you wish to persist by asking what reality is; that is, what is really, the answer is that it is what you experience it to be. Reality is as you see, hear, feel, taste and smell it, and as you live it. And it is a multifarious thing. To see this is to be a man without a position. To get out of the mind and into the world, to get beyond language and to the things is to cease to be an idealist or a pragmatist, or an existentialist, or a Christian. I am a man without a position. I do not have the philosophic position that there are no positions or theories or standpoints. (There obviously are.) I am not a sceptic or an agnostic or an atheist. I am simply a man without a position, and this should open the door to detachment"Paul Wienpahl in An Unorthodox Lecture (1956)